Monday, August 3, 2009

‘Star Trek’ actor wants salmon farms removed

William Shatner has boldly gone where no actor has gone before: B.C.’s controversial fish farms. The Canadian actor has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking that salmon farms be removed from crucial wild-salmon migration routes off northern Vancouver Island.

Bristol Bay fisherman lost after falling overboard

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for a commercial fisherman who reportedly fell overboard Friday night near Anchor Point in Togiak Bay. The Coast Guard says 31-year-old Benjamin Symmes, of Montana, disappeared from the 28-foot seine boat Miss Colleen around 9:45 p.m. Friday.

Coast Guard consolidating radio operations

The U.S. Coast Guard is consolidating its radio monitoring operations to Anchorage from ports such as Kodiak. “We want to assure the public there will always be someone listening,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Jimmy Belcher, Coast Guard Sector Anchorage Command Center supervisor. “The mariners are not losing any communication at all.”

Fraser River sockeye run comes in weak again

For local commercial fishermen, this was supposed to be the year that made the last three years worth hanging in for. Shut out of the once-lucrative Fraser River sockeye fishery for the last two years, they have been banking on a good return this summer. But that hope is fading fast, thanks to drastically low returns on early sockeye runs, which are half what they were expected to be.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Feds award $700,000 grant to test Alaska fish

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has been awarded a $700,000 federal grant to test for environmental contaminants in the state’s fish. The U.S. Minerals Management Service, which regulates offshore oil and gas exploration, awarded the grant through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program. The state will assess the effect of contaminants such as heavy metals and pesticides on coastal and marine ecosystems by testing muscle tissue from fish.

Threat from ocean protected areas assessed

Southern California’s commercial fishing industry would lose up to 15 percent of annual profits, and Oceanside would be hit harder than any other port, under a network of proposed ocean protected areas from Santa Barbara to the U.S.-Mexico border, a consultant says.

Puget Sound dive fishermen find work finding nets

Until recently Kenny Woodside and about 100 hundred other divers searched Puget Sound for sea cucumbers and urchins to sell to buyers in Asia, where the items are considered delicacies. But demand for the fishermen’s catch dried up with the worldwide economic crisis and left many of these divers without a reason to go out on the water. But thanks to a small piece of the federal stimulus recovery plan, Woodside and about 40 other fishermen will get back to work hauling in a very different catch: lost fishing nets.

Alien kelp invades San Francisco Bay

SAN FRANCISCO – Chela Zabin will not soon forget when she first glimpsed the golden brown tentacle of the latest alien to settle in the fertile waters of San Francisco Bay. “I had that moment of ‘Oh God, this is it, it’s here,’ ” said Dr. Zabin, a biologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. “I was really hoping I was wrong.”

Kenai River salmon ‘goldfish’ might be coming to end

Each spring, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game fish biologist captures a few thousand Kenai River sockeye smolt, dyes them gold and releases them back into the river. Kenai River smolt dyeing began in 2005 as part of a Fish and Game mark and recapture project to estimate out-migrating smolt abundance. In the future, however, the spring parade of gold smolt swimming down the Kenai River could come to an end if, as Fish and Game biologists hope, a genetic-based method of estimating smolt abundance can be used to replace the dye-based method.

‘Overzealous’ federal fisheries enforcement under scrutiny

North Carolina fishermen have joined their peers from New England and New York in voicing
complaints about what they say are excessive fines and overzealous enforcement practices by federal
fisheries agents.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Kenai sockeye run nears end

Closing commercial fisheries last week paid off – for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game anyway. As of Sunday, Fish and Game achieved its in-river goal of 650,000 for the Kenai River, reaching 656,000 sockeye salmon. Commercial fisheries reopened Saturday. However, the numbers of sockeye are diminishing as the season comes to an end.

Fishermen, MP voice displeasure with DFO management

The commercial fishermen of Prince Rupert took to the streets last Friday once again protesting the DFO’s decisions regarding the sockeye fishery, handfuls of them carrying signs of supplication: “We Want to Fish.”

Schwarzenegger rejiggers panel ahead of MPA vote

On the eve of a key vote on protections for fish, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed a new member of the Fish and Game Commission, the five-member state board charged with mapping out protected areas under the 1998 Marine Life Protection Act. The decision to appoint Donald Benninghoven on Tuesday afternoon followed the resignation of the commission's president, Cindy Gustafson, on Friday. Environmental groups supported Benninghoven's appointment, worrying that Gustafson's resignation would result in a 2-2 tie over proposed marine protections from San Mateo to Point Arena.

Evidence of fish oil benefits ‘extensive’

A new review concludes that there is extensive evidence from three decades of research that fish oils,
or more specifically the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) contained in them, are beneficial for everyone.

In Nicaragua, they just dynamite the fish

Like a drug dealer advertising his goods, the 23-year-oldfisherman rubbernecks to ensure no police arearound before pulling a 1-pound bomb from his pocket. It’s an old sardine can wrapped in a cement bag filled with gunpowder, sugar and sulfur. It is lit with a waterproof wick.

– San Francisco Chronicle

Recession, foreign competition pinch Louisiana crabbers

Like others who make a living from Gulf seafood, crab fishermen and processors have been hurt by foreign competition and the economic slump, which has driven down prices and demand.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

California commission creates more marine reserves

The salty folks who like to hook rockfish, harvest kelp and dive for abalone will have to steer clear of several spots between Half Moon Bay and Mendocino County after a decision Wednesday by the state Fish and Game Commission to protect 85 square miles of California’s ocean, including some of its most pristine habitat.

NOAA research ships to leave Seattle for Oregon

The state of Oregon and the Port of Newport agreed to issue up to $44 million in bonds to build a state-of-the-art facility for the ships on Yaquina Bay. A co-owner of the Lake Union facility where the NOAA ships have been based for nearly 50 years said Tuesday it would have taken $25 million in upgrades to match the “Maserati” that government subsidies allowed Newport to offer.

Big ships keep eye on fisheries

Local fishing fleets may encounter larger, unfamiliar U.S. Coast Guard cutters on the water this summer, enforcing federal and state fisheries regulations and performing duties often conducted by local Coast Guard cutters.

Unalaska in line for $2 million for harbor

California fishermen cast some hope for a 2010 salmon season

Salmon fishing may just materialize next year at Santa Cruz, regulators say, for recreational fishermen anyway. The state Department of Fish and Game recently posted an April 3, 2010, opening date for recreational salmon fishing south of Humboldt County’s Horse Mountain, which would allow Monterey Bay anglers to catch two fish per day of any salmon species other than coho. Tom Faulk of the Paloma, a commercial salmon boat, said, “We might have a season too next year. We usually don’t hear until late fall. It’s just another uncertainty.”

Friday, August 7, 2009

West Coast petrale sole at risk of dreaded ‘overfished’ label

One of the most valuable Pacific groundfish is at risk of being labeled overfished – a nightmare scenario for the West Coast commercial trawl fleet. A new stock assessment for petrale sole shows the population is far below the federal “overfished” level, which could lead the Pacific Fishery Management Council to halve catch limits immediately and possibly cancel the catch altogether until fish counts rebound.

Economist says fishermen win in Alaska’s crab rationalization

Crab rationalization, the 2005 management overhaul that divided the Bering Sea crab fisheries into individual catch shares as well as unprecedented processor shares, upset the balance between processors and crabbers, Washington State University economics professor Scott Matulich writes in a new paper. The bottom line, according to Matulich: The processors got screwed.

Schwarzenegger signs bill to ban suction dredge mining

After years of fighting, the Karuk Tribe feels it got a major win Thursday that will help protect
vulnerable fish populations. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday authored by North Coast Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, placing a short-term ban on suction dredge mining, a controversial
gold mining technique that some feel pollutes rivers and streams, threatening salmon and other fish populations.

Fraser sockeye ‘not sustainable,’ environmental groups say

It would be a joke to certify Fraser River sockeye salmon as a "sustainable" seafood source in light of the species' precipitous decline, environmental groups say. The U.K.-based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has recommended eco-certification for the Fraser and Skeena sockeye fisheries, although a final decision isn't expected until the fall.

Census of Marine Life maps an ocean of species

The first comprehensive effort to identify and catalog every species in the world’s oceans, from microbes to blue whales, is a year from completion. But early discoveries have profoundly altered understanding of life beneath the sea, senior scientists say.